Should the NFL overtime rules be changed?

[Deberg_1990]

Forehead did not seem pleased.....


http://seattletimes.com/html/seahawk...post22xml.html


The winner of a classic football game should never be determined by pure, dumb luck.
Unlike the Super Bowl, the only difference Sunday between the Broncos and Seattle was a flip of the coin. “We felt like we were the better team,” Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said.

Not to take anything away from the Seahawks’ 26-20 overtime victory against Denver, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from the NFL of late, it’s this: What’s fair got to do with anything in this league? And the more the rules change, the less we trust that justice is truly being served.

After Denver rallied from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter on the road in the NFL’s rowdiest stadium, the silence of stunned Seahawks fans was deafening as quarterback Peyton Manning represented the Broncos on the coin flip to determine which team would get the football to begin overtime.
Manning called tails.
The Seahawks won.
NFL overtime rules are stupid.

“It puts a premium on the coin toss,” Manning said. “I called tails at the beginning of the game, and went with it again in overtime. It was heads, and it proved to be a significant call. But that’s the way it is. And you’d like to not leave it to that, leave it to get to that situation.”
Manning was forced to stand and watch as Seattle marched 80 yards for a touchdown on the opening possession of overtime. No doubt, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was fantastic on the game-winning drive. When a fierce 6-yard run by Marshawn Lynch gave sudden death to Denver’s remarkable comeback, Broncos linebacker Nate Irving and his defensive teammates were so emotionally stunned their feet no longer seemed to work. They stood near the goal line, nobody wanting to go home.
Did this qualify as a moral victory after the 43-8 blowout in the Super Bowl? Knighton certainly didn’t want a juice box and a condescending pat on the head. “You either win or you lose ... We’re not saying, ‘At least the score is better than the Super Bowl’ or anything like that,” Knighton insisted.

Manning has become known in Denver, thanks to imaginative T-shirt makers and excitable fans, as PFM. Maybe I’ve finally figured out what those three letters mean: Pray for miracles.
In the hands of Manning, miracles happen.
While the NFL’s most beautiful mind was stumped by the Seahawks for the vast majority of four quarters and Denver’s offensive game plan appeared so simplistic you might have wondered if it had been written in crayon, Manning willed the Broncos 80 yards in the final 59 seconds of the fourth quarter to tie the game, despite the hindrance of no timeouts to stop the clock.

Manning hit a wide-open Jacob Tamme with a 26-yard pass for the touchdown, then found Demaryius Thomas against Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman to convert the essential two points after the TD.
Prayer answered.

“That’s what makes him Peyton Manning,” said Wilson, with obvious respect for one of the NFL’s elder statesmen. “That’s what makes him one of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game.”

Then, however, Manning was forced to sit and watch overtime. Maybe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should have bought Manning a pretzel and beer. In 2012, the league amended its overtime rules to allow each team to possess the ball at least once in the extra period, unless a touchdown is scored on the opening drive by the lucky bums who win the coin flip.
That’s stupid. Let’s simplify the rules: If the teams have fought into an overtime, haven’t both teams earned the right to touch the football at least once?

Yes, Tim Tebow gave Denver fans one of the biggest playoff thrills in franchise history by beating Pittsburgh in overtime on an 80-yard bolt from the blue.
But has Hollywood ever required Denzel Washington or Harrison Ford to sit out the last reel when things got dicey and the audience prayed for a miracle from the movie’s hero?
“We’re not going to change the rules,” said Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. “But I would’ve liked our chances if we got our ‘O’ back out there.”
Fade to black.

[tk13]

Originally Posted by Iconic

Technically that is exactly what the Broncos did to the Seahawks right before they went to overtime. So...

What does this even mean? Yeah they did, and they had to go to OT because of it. The Seahawks paid the price for their poor play. As did the Broncos.

[Rudy tossed tigger's salad]

Play two, 6-minute quarters with a 25-second playclock. Each team gets to start with the ball first. Solved.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by CanadianChiefs

True, but sometimes both defenses are terrible, so the team that wins the toss has a better chance to win.

I'm not interested in going out of our way with a longer OT to make the coin toss meaningless. It used to be a huge advantage to win. Now its only a small advantage, thats good enough for me.

[mdstu]

Originally Posted by Iconic

So if this rule ever fires back on the Chiefs, at home, in a playoff loss, I'll be sure to say "We did NOT deserve a possession!"

If this happens I will agree with you.
We would not deserve to win or touch the ball.

[Iconic]

Originally Posted by alnorth

We can't make rules based on what happened to your own team recently.

Touchdowns are not so incredibly damned hard to stop that we need to expect that the poor overmatched defense is incapable of preventing it. The current OT rules are objectively fine as they are, regardless of who they help or hurt next week or any week.

Looking at this objectively the fact remains getting the ball first is still an advantage. An advantage gained through nothing but pure luck via coin toss.

[GoChargers]

Originally Posted by Iconic

Technically that is exactly what the Broncos did to the Seahawks right before they went into overtime. So...

Cool. Maybe Fivehead shouldn't have waited until the last drive of regulation to stop throwing ducks (blatant uncalled holding by his O-line notwithstanding).

[Iconic]

Originally Posted by tk13

What does this even mean? Yeah they did, and they had to go to OT because of it. The Seahawks paid the price for their poor play. As did the Broncos.

Your argument was if you can ram it down the oppositions throat and score a touchdown while the game is on the line, you deserve another possession.

I'm saying the Broncos technically did just that.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Iconic

Looking at this objectively the fact remains getting the ball first is still an advantage. An advantage gained through nothing but pure luck via coin toss.

Do you want the coin toss to be COMPLETELY meaningless?

That is basically impossible. So right away, you'd have to concede that you aren't looking for it to be meaningless, but just a small advantage. How small is small enough to be acceptable?

I believe the coinflip-FG under the old rules made the winner have an unnacceptably-large advantage, but the coin-flip TD and the new rules have dramatically reduced the advantage to the point where its acceptably-small.

Longer OT is not free, there is a cost to having more possessions. We ideally want to keep the game to 4 quarters, but we don't like ties, so we had sudden-death OT. We hated coin-flip FG so much that we extended OT just a little more to get rid of them.

The goal is not to make OT as fair as possible, if you are in OT, you don't deserve completely-fair. The goal is to keep OT short enough that we can live with the results.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Iconic

Looking at this objectively the fact remains getting the ball first is still an advantage. An advantage gained through nothing but pure luck via coin toss.

It's not an advantage if the other team's defense is stronger than your offense, or if your defense is stronger than the other team's offense.

Granted, though, that the modern rules give offenses all sorts of advantages over defenses, so that's a factor.

[RealSNR]

Get raped, Manning. We got ****ed even worse during the Vermeil years when teams would win the toss, kick a field goal, and call it good. You at least get to make them score a TD.

Quit yer bitchin and yell at your teammates on defense if it pisses you off that bad.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Denver was lucky to even go to overtime. Don't get shit pushed in on defense and jug head would a had a shot

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by SNR

Get raped, Manning. We got ****ed even worse during the Vermeil years when teams would win the toss, kick a field goal, and call it good. You at least get to make them score a TD.

Quit yer bitchin and yell at your teammates on defense if it pisses you off that bad.

We held teams to field goals in those years? I didn't remember that.

[The_Hound]

Originally Posted by GoChargers

Cool. Maybe Fivehead shouldn't have waited until the last drive of regulation to stop throwing ducks (blatant uncalled holding by his O-line notwithstanding).

you saw that too? that ****er lives off ref calls and now whines about a coin toss? he should've called tails, what a ****er.

[Iconic]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Do you want the coin toss to be COMPLETELY meaningless?

Yes, there's absolutely no reason a coin toss should have such a large impact on the game.

The goal is not to make OT as fair as possible, if you are in OT, you don't deserve completely-fair. The goal is to keep OT short enough that we can live with the results.

I guess we can agree to disagree then.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Most importantly the better team won. Holy shit sooooo many ducks.